Reclaim The Streetz! Monday, Nov. 30, 8pm

On the 10th anniversary of the WTO protests in Seattle, and with hometown heroes Lil Wayne and Lil Boosie headed to prison, you are invited to a Reclaim The Streets that demands nothing from power. Instead, we seek to create a space in our city where the police and prison system that has failed to protect us from the policies of the WTO and neo-liberal globalization, while disproportionately targeting the most vulnerable members of our community, are not allowed to operate. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the world, yet we are no safer. We will create our own world, where safety is a function of justice, equality, and freedom, and not the illusion created in our current prison-society. We begin here. Occupy everything!

To be held on Canal Street downtown. More info: http://nolaRTS.wordpress.com

Get Your Massage! Pay What You Can! Love The World Again!

ASHER is back at the Iron Rail, giving massages!

This Saturday, November 21, from 2-6 p.m.

Asher is a certified, professional masseuse who is generously donating his skills to help raise funds for our ambitious but impoverished little infoshop/spa. He's got a chair and everything. He went to school for this, but more importantly, he's just great at it. Those who he's touched rave about him, and this is YOUR CHANCE to find out why!

His hands are the hands of a great sculptor, or perhaps a symphony conductor who splits his own cordwood: the hands of a do-er, a master craftsperson, a kinaesthetic shaper of better destinies.

And folks, it is THOSE EXTRAORDINARY HANDS, those same heaven-infused, sinewed extremities which Asher will deploy to sculpt YOUR VERY FLESH, working out stresses that might date back months, even years... tension you've been carrying for a decade, unawares! This is your chance. He's got the goods; let him heal you.
Pay what you can (no amount would be too much), but do not miss out on this...

Suggested donation is $5 for 5 minutes. No one turned away!

The incredible ASHER will melt your troubles away with a more regular bi-weekly schedule of pay-what-you-can chair massages some day in the not too distant future, so stay tuned for that!

Come find out what this skilled artisan has to offer!

Donate To The Free Store!

Dozens of poor and homeless people people come into the Free Store Lobby of our bookstore/library every day to get clothes, shoes, food, books, personal items, etc...

Winter is arriving, and people have been asking for warm clothes and blankets. We are appealing to all those who would donate items to Goodwill to bring them to our space instead to provide items that the poorest are desperate for.

We say: Give freely of what you don't want, take freely of what you need.

Come look though the free store and bring some items to donate. Please help! The recession is making life even harder for those of us with the least!
The free store is open 7 days a week.
Hours: 1-7pm.
At 511 Marigny St.

Please forward this to people who may be able to donate.

Thanks!
-The Iron Rail
http://www.ironrail.org
504-944-0366

PROTEST! SHIRTS! FUNDRAISER! TOTALITOILETARIANISM!

I've got... I've got an idea, I mean, something pretty far-out we could get into. I'm thinking: You, and me, and an


IRON RAIL NEWSLETTER

*****
The 2009 New Orleans BookFair was a roaring success, and the Rail is re-equipped with books-as-commodity plus sufficient smackeroos to get our telephone turned back on. The health meter's recharged, some dents are out of the armor, and we're ready to re-enter battle against the status quo. Our shelves bristle with a sharp new titles from Kersplebedeb, Microcosm, AK and PM Presses. Our 'zine table glitters, heaped high with local prose gemstonez. Come check out the new stock; you'll plotz.


GET A BRAIN, MORANS
Have you guys heard about this? The Tony Moran protests? Yeah? No? Real briefly, among the French Quarter's many dens of foodservice worker-abuse a particularly egregious restaurant (Tony Moran's) and its scumbag boss (Jobert Salem) have been mistreating and robbing employees, requiring them to do prep off the clock, stealing their credit card tips, and in some cases just plain not paying people for banquet & catering jobs. Jobert & co. did this to a couple members of a firebreathing worker's center, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, and now ROC and its allies, including the Iron Rail Bookstore and New Orleans anarchists at large, are going to war.

There's a lot to this story-- a lawsuit against Tony Moran's is in progress, among other things-- but on the streets where some of us like to get things done, there have been a surprisingly successful and fun series of pickets & leafletting sessions in front of Tony Moran's the past few weeks. Believe me, crooked bosses are taking notice. The workers of the French Quarter's hospitality industry are making their voices heard, and it's a thrill to be a part of it. The pigs busted us up the first week, but we adjusted our tactics and haven't had any trouble since.

We need you. We need to send a strong message, and numbers is how we send that message. It's not just about one fake-eyetalian tourist-trap eatery... it's about the way restaurant workers are treated in New Orleans. Wage theft has to end, and it's going to end now. !Ya Basta!

This Friday the 13th will be the biggest protest yet. There oughta be media coverage, which will focus additional pressure. Tony Moran's is losing business. We need to crack them. In the words of one of the ROC-NOLA organizers, isn't it about time New Orleans had a social justice victory?

It's early evening, and will be over by nine. Please turn out FRIDAY at 7:30 PM sharp-ish outside TIRAMISU 55, a little bar at 123 CARONDELET (just off Canal St.). There we will work out our plans and march to Tony Moran's on Bourbon St. Bring as many people as you can, tell as many people as you can. Get a piece of real street-level struggle... You'll feel good.


THE SHIRT OFF YOUR BACK
Got T-shirts? Want to donate T-shirts? Please? Alternatively, anything else that could benefit from a bad-ass Iron Rail logo silkscreened onto it? Confirmed actual super-being and longtime collective member Phant is down to do a big, big batch of shirts. She silkscreens 'em, they look superb, we hawk 'em, people wear 'em, government collapses. All that's required to set this happy Rube Goldberg process in motion is for you to swing by the Rail's front desk with as many T-shirts as you can muster, perhaps even some shirts in sizes, styles and conditions attractive to those outside the "peed themselves today" demographic. Bring us shirts! Please! A batch from a thrift store, from your closet, from Michael's, from wherever! Steal them if you want; we won't tell.


RAISE LETTUCE
That's what we used to call money back in the day. Lettuce. A collective member was carjacked Saturday, and among the losses were hundreds of dollars of new Iron Rail books. New Orleans is a tough town to run an anarchist library/bookstore in; the pinch never quits. Have YOU got an idea for an IRON RAIL Fundraiser? Something simple, or something innovative? Got the wherewithal to make it happen or at least help organize it? Please get in touch! It is you, your enthusiasm, your time, your creativity and your participation that allow the Iron Rail to continue existing. Drop us an e-mail, or far better yet, show up in cheerful person some Wednesday at 8 pm, and let's get the ball rollllllling.


LET'S ALL SUPPORT LOUISIANA BOOKS 2 PRISONERS
Finally, here's a wonderful way you can help an important radical organization without even getting out from in front of your computer. Ah, the convenience of the digital age! No more tedious leaving home and going places; we so-called activists can just sit eating Chee-Weez in our underwear and doing crap on the internet. I foresee a wave of outsourcing actions: people need money, and I'm just so busy with my marriage, my kids, my band, my schoolwork, my career. Why not pay a poor person forty bucks to do it instead? Now, with MyDirectAction.com you can browse available 3rd-world freelancers who will march, sit-in, or throw a rock FOR you! ...But okay none of that has anything to do with Books2Prisoners, a New Orleans nonprofit that sends free books to the incarcerated. B2P is a former ARC roomie in line for a big payday through some do-gooder feel-good something-or-other. You can vote for b2p and they'll hopefully get money they really need. Worknights are booming, postage costs are stratospheric and Books2Prisoners is steady sending packages. Click HERE --> http://bit.ly/3STiFd to vote for them! For more information on Books to Prisoners, including how you can volunteer, check 'em out at
http://lab2p.wordpress.com


IN ADDITION
Spanish-language movie nights roll on, Ladies' Nite rolls on, and open-to-everybody collective meetings are every Wednesday at 8 pm. Find details on the gradually improving Iron Rail website. Come get involved... we need ya!

FURTHERMORE
Y'all ever had "Peanut Butter Jelly Grits" ? jesus, so delicious. Vegan, too!

Topple the teetering tautologies of totalitoiletarianism!

For hilarious updates like this one, sign up for our e-mail list. Follow the instructions on the fron page of our website.

The Only Good Cop Is A .................

On Saturday, November 7, 2009, the New Orleans Bookfair was in full swing, with blocks of tables full of local independent, radical, and alternative literature. A cop had been cruising the streets of the outdoor fair, stopping to stare at punk-looking musicians and the kids in the bouncey castle (pedophiles on the force?), making several passes as the otherwise festive day unfolded.
Like a hyena marauding at the edges of the event, he eventually pounced, stopping a bicyclist for riding the wrong way down the street, which was being harmoniously utilized by walking customers, bicyclists, musicians, and cars, all giving each other the space they needed. The officer stopped his car in the middle of the street, in the middle of the fair, and blocked traffic for over 30 minutes while he proceeded to slowly write a ticket to an unfortunate one of the dozens of people riding up and down the street on bicycles in both directions.
This cop was mistaken in thinking he could get away with his harassment of cyclists unchallenged, and soon a crowd gathered to witness and confront this blatant harassment. Chants began of "Stop Police Harassment" and "Riding a bike is not a crime," as bookfair attendees, neighbors, and onlookers joined in. Soon the lone cop was facing down a crowd of dozens, clapping, chanting, and exposing the routine function of the police as arbitrary bullies, enforcing the version of "law and order" they choose to enforce: against the poor, against cyclists, and against alternative cultures.
The cop was completely shamed, humiliated, and embarrassed, as not one person in the crowd of hundreds of onlookers supported his actions. He succeeded in further, and thanks to the spontaneous protest, very publicly, delegitmizing the role of the police in New Orleans for hundreds of people. The unemployed cyclist, who the cop no doubt saw as an easy target, was grateful for the support he received, and local anarchists pledged to stay in touch and bring a full courtroom to his hearing, as well as help him pay his ticket if he is convicted. Solidarity is our power.

His court date is set for December 23rd, and New Orleans bicyclists, anarchists, and anti-Prison Industrial Complex activists will be there to see this fight to its finish and show the cops that harassment of bicyclists and poor people in our city will not be tolerated.

To stay informed and get the details of the court-hearing, join the NOLA-anarchists email group:Send a blank email to nola-anarchists+subscribe@googlegroups.com

TUESDAY FREE MOVIE NIGHT REBORN

7:30 p.m., the first & third Tuesdayz of the month. Don't buckle beneath relentless crushing despair and put an end to your empty life just yet... instead, visit the Iron Rail to enjoy FREE MOVIES in Spanish (with English subtitles) and stick around afterwards for Spanish convo. Burnish those language skills like you've been meaning to!

---

NOV 3
El día de la bestia (1995, España)
Dirigida por Álex de la Iglesia. ¿Qué pasa cuando un cura, un roquero satánico y un presentador de un show de la tele traten a evitar el apocalipsis que venga con el paro del anticristo? ¡Hilaridad! Con el Diablo como estralla invitada. 666.
Directed by Álex de la Iglesia. What happens when a priest, a heavy metal head and a tv show host try to stop the birth of the antichrist and the coming apocalypse? Hilarity! With the Devil guest starring. 666.

NOV 17
Machuca (2004,Chile)
Dirigida por Andrés Wood. Un drama histórico centrado sobre tres niños durante a la revolución del Allende y el posterior golpe de estado por Pinochet en 1973. Pro-bablemente, va a llorar por el fin.
Directed by Andrés Wood. Historical drama centered around three kids around the Allende revolution and the subsequent coup by Pinochet in 1973. You will probably cry by the end.

DEC 1
Plata Quemada/Burnt money (2000, Argentina)
Dirigida por Marcelo Piñeyro. Dos mercenarios gayes y calientez en el año 1965 estropean un atraco a un banco, intercambiando disparos y miradas provocativas de pasión. Super elegante.
Directed by Marcelo Piñeyro. Two hottt gay mercenaries in 1965 botch a bank robbery in Buenos Aires, exchanging gunfire and smoldering gazes of passion. Muy Classy.

DEC 15
Película de Disney/ Some Disney Movie (EE.UU)
Dirigida por una Corporación. Disney hace lo mejor doblado (hay que entrar a las cabezas de los jóvenes de todas las lenguas). Entonces vengan y vuelvan a vivir una memoria sórdida de su niñez y cantamos. Hay varios, entonces vamos a hacer el voto.
Directed by a Corporation. Disney does the best dubbing (got to get into the heads of kids no matter the language). So come relive a sordid childhood moment and get to not sing along (unless you’re fluent that is). Got a couple of ‘em, so we’ll vote.

JAN 5
El Topo/The Mole (1970,México)
Dirigida por Alejandro Jodorowsky (Holy Mountain) hace su cosa y haciendo la locura. Una película de sicodélico del oeste. Más hay alegoría y sátira de la historia de México y La Iglesia Católica añadidas. Y también algo del occidental y los yogis, obvio.
Director Alejandro Jodorowsky (Holy Mountain) is doing his thing and making craziness happen. Psychedelic western cult flick. Plus some allegory and satire of Mexican history and the Catholic church thrown in. Oh and some eastern yogi stuff, of course.

JAN 19
!Ay Carmela! (1990, España)
Dirigida por Carlos Saura. Todavía otra película sobre La Guerra Civil en España, y como las otras es muy buena y todavía algo distinta. Un grupo republicano de vodevil se encuentra en el territorio fascista donde son forzada a actuar. Travesuras chifladas y la muerte de una España libre sigan.
Directed by Carlos Saura.
Yet another movie about the Spanish Civil War, and like all the others so good and still something different. A Republican vaudeville group finds themselves in Fascist territory where they are forced to perform. Wacky hijinxs and the death of a free Spain ensue.